College Football is the greatest spectator sport in America. Tailgating is an art form, sampling the local fare, traditions and partaking in a beverage or two is a must. Atmosphere is everything! If you don't attend a game, you can still tailgate right in the confines of your own man-cave. Enjoy the site!
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Monday, January 22, 2018

An epic season by all accounts for the DFT Nation. Let’s
take a peak back at a year that consisted of tailgating, sailgating,
railgating, failgating, a shootout and a weekend trifecta in an RV.My season kicked off in the dust at San Jose
State in week zero with friends from Danville. Labor Day weekend was the RV extravaganza
hosted by Cousin Eddie with stops in Bloomington, Dekalb and Iowa City. Only a
fool would continue a season of tailgating after that outing. Lucky for you
all, I am just that fool. A game at Cal Berkley with Mrs. Tailgate against
Weber State was the low-key outing required after Labor Day. The following
weekend had me connecting with my brother Brian for a stop in Athens Ohio to
watch the Bobcats dismantle Kansas followed by an evening game at Marshall
University. The next three weekends were spent at Cal, Stanford and San Jose
State with family and friends. Mid October had me officially attending the “Red
River Shootout” at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas between OU and Texas with #2 and
her Sooner crew. A weekend off was followed by the incredible “Sailgating”
experience at the University of Washington with the Dons of Danville and the
Snowflake Brigade. Another weekend of recharging was in store as it was
followed by “Railgating” with my high school crew and the Deutchkis on a
Cockaboose at the University of South Carolina.

As the end of the season was nearing, we landed in
Sacramento for the Causeway Classic between Sac State and UC Davis for an
amazing FCS contest. Mrs. Tailgate and I celebrated our anniversary in San
Diego by watching the Aztecs destroy New Mexico at The Murph. On December 8,
with over 100 family and friends in attendance, we braved the snowy elements of
Philadelphia to watch one of the most exciting Army Navy games in recent
history. The annual trip to Santa Clara for the Foster Farms Bowl was followed
by perhaps the most exciting Rose bowl of all time as we sadly watched our
Oklahoma Sooners go down in defeat at the paws of the Georgia Bulldogs. Season
over for us.

·17 D1 A games attended

·1 D1 AA game

·9 new cathedrals added to the quest (I still
have many more to hit)

·6 JV High School games

·1 Varsity High School game

DFTer of the year goes to Mrs. Tailgate as she attended a
record 6 games with me. She even improved her in-game questions and commentary
to sound slightly knowledgeable.

Enjoy the brief slide show:

We also launched a new business called Tailgate connect, a
service that connects visiting tailgaters with host tailgates. We will need all
of your help in getting the word out before next season as we are seeking more
hosts and more guests: https://www.tailgateconnect.com/

Congratulations to the Dynasty that is the Alabama Crimson
Tide for winning another FBS Natty by taking down the Dawgs in a thriller in
Atlanta.

Next year’s planned
road trips:

·Labor Day Trifecta at Purdue, Illinois and TBD

·Kansas & Kansas State or Minnesota and Saint
John’s double header.

·Utah State Thursday night game

·Ohio State at Penn State

·Columbia Home game with the Donnelly Brothers in
honor of our Dad

·Texas A&M at Mississippi State

·South Carolina at Florida

·Army v Navy

·National Championship game in Santa Clara

Final Bieber –
STOP TRYING TO MAKE DILLY DILLY HAPPEN! It aint happening. It’s stupid. It’s
weak. It’s annoying and I am going to make the next person who sez it or writes
it a Bieber HOFer. Got it? You have all been warned!

In recognition of the passing of the late great Keith
Jackson, I will sign off with his words:

Sunday, January 7, 2018

My most sincere apologies for the one week delay in doing
the Bowl season recap. You see, as Poison Front Man Bret Michaels sang “ Every
Rose Has Its Thorn”, that was the case for me after the 104th
rendition of The Rose Bowl. The wounds were too deep and too fresh for me to
put pen to paper to provide a joyful write up. After finding inspiration in
Ireland’s finest liquid, I have regained enough self esteem and courage to
provide this recap.

At this point, the only humans alive that don’t know the
outcome of the Rose Bowl are still hiding from civilization deep in the rain
forest of the Amazon or have the last name Kaczynski and live in a 200 -square
foot cabin in Montana. Nonetheless, here we are, and I shall share my musings
with DFT Nation and curious lurkers. We loaded up the F150 on 12/30 with all
the elements to host a successful tailgate for the Rose Bowl matchup between
our Oklahoma Sooners and the Georgia Bulldogs. At 0500 hours on 12/31 the
sleepy Griswolds piled into my rig, and away we went for the 320 mile trek down
south. Fueled by a quadruple espresso and an air guitar, Captain Clarke W.
Griswold broke the land speed record and pulled into Wally World in Santa
Clarita in four hours and 12 minutes. Rusty, Audrey and their friends went off
to Wally World, AKA Six Flags Magic Mountain for the day as I rested up back at
the hotel for the big pending event the following day.

New Year’s Day started for us before the clock struck 0600
hours. We were in place on the Brookside Golf Course which doubles as the Rose
Bowl parking lot by 0725. Tent erected, satellite TV fired up, bar established,
and bacon infused Bloody Mary’s served, all by 8 AM. As most of the eastern
half of the country was under a deep freeze, we were treated to clear skies and
70 + degree weather. I was joined by Mrs. Tailgate, #2 and # 3 and their BFF’s
Nicole and Lauren, the Eichenger siblings Brian and Lauren, the Gervolinos, the
Sovells, the Glassys and long- time buddy from Rockville, MD Johnny Harper.
Many others joined us including the McElwee clan from UGA who were parked next
to us. Tailgate games were played, fireball toasts were abundant, and the chow
was top notch. We grilled up sliders and sausages, and breakfast burritos and
mac and cheese were also consumed. Beer funnel racing and shot guns provided us
with spontaneous entertainment. We had a near private performance from the Pride
of Oklahoma Marching Band as they played a mere 50 steps away from our
tent. The tailgate lasted until 1 PM but seemed like it was less than hour
long. That is a sign of a great time. Our first Bieber candidate failed to
attend the tailgate, more on all Bieber entrants below.

Getting into the stadium is always a challenge as an
under-trained security staff had no idea how to process 90,000 people through
four entrances. I even gave them some verbal encouragement to perhaps actually improve
their work performances and not stand around chatting with other yellow
jacketed sleuths. Regardless, we got to our seats in time to see an amazing
Stealth flyover and patriotic pageantry that united the OU crimson and Bulldog red
parts of the stadium as one America.

I will not recap the game but will
generalize by saying OU dominated the first half behind Baker Mayfield and
Rodney Anderson’s tremendous play. UGA won the 3rd quarter with a
defense that was inspired and a run game that could not be stopped. The teams
battled to a draw in Q4 that led to OT. (The first OT in Rose Bowl history). UGA
won in the second overtime on a Sony Michel 25-yard run for glory. Neither
Defense did much to stop the other team’s Offense with the exception of UGA stifling
OU in Q3. Final score UGA 54 – OU 48. We witnessed what I am told is one of the
most exciting games neutral observers and UGA fans have ever seen. We felt
otherwise and departed in record time back to our hotel to nurse our wounds. Bieber
entry number two sat behind us. Dawg fans barked through the night celebrating
their big comeback win. For their reward, they get Bama in the Natty as the
Tide rolled the Clemson Tigers in the Sugar Bowl.

Enjoy the Rose Bowl slide show

As a bonus, I co-hosted a Tailgate along with Drubaca, John
Maddalon and the Duncan family at the Foster Farms Bowl on 12/27 in Santa Clara
for the Arizona v Purdue matchup. We were joined by many friends and visitors
throughout the three- hour tailgate. Grilled chicken, fried chicken, tri tip,
beer brats, egg rolls and an assortment of appetizers and sides were served.
Bieber entry number three visited our bar in a most profound way and Bieber
numero quatro was fired up at the tailgate. Purdue won the game 38-35 and Rich Rodriguez
is no longer coach of the Wildcats.

In other “New Year’s Six” Bowl action, UCF defeated Auburn
going undefeated and making a fictional claim on being National Champions.
Notre Dame defeated LSU, Penn State bested Washington, Wisconsin blew the
Hurricanes off the field and USC went down hard to Ohio State in Jerry World.
Overall bowl records by conference:

AAC - 4-3

ACC -4-6

Big Ten -7-1

Big 12 - 5-3

CUSA – 4-4

Independents – 2-0

MAC – 1-4

MWC – 3-3

PAC 12 -1-7

SEC – 4-5

Sun Belt – 4-1

Loyal Cydia Garrett supporting a helpless cause.

Ken Reinke Pre-gaming for the Vegas Bowl.

Congratulations to North Dakota State for winning it’s 6th
FCS title in 7 years with a hard fought win over James Madison. Texas A&M Commerce
and Mount Union are this season’s Division 2 and 3 champions.

Bieber – The first
Bieber goes to our Rose Bowl tailgate guest Pat’s girlfriend Laura for missing
the tailgate and only attending 20 minutes of the game. It seems she is a bit
out of practice and forgot to pace herself the night before. Oh well, I drank her
fireball and ate her sliders! Bieber # 2 is awarded to the UGA fan seated
behind us in Section 25 row 15, seat 12. Yeah, he is that fan that can make you loathe a team. After listening to this stain scream
profanities and essentially try to ruin the Rose Bowl experience for the Sooner
fans around him for an hour, he and I had a little talk. Let’s just say we did
not hear much from him after that. It is apparent that this Bieberite never
played sports and is basically an angry jilted little man who probably went
back to his TSA job at Hartsfield International or some other meaningless career role the following
day. Bieber #3 is bestowed upon the random girl who showed up at our Foster
Farms tailgate, demanded a shot of tequila, complained that there were no lemons,
and proceeded to regurgitate her daily intake all over the bar. Bieber # 4 goes
to repeat winner John Maddalon for knocking over the sterno can and catching
his clothes and the serving table on fire with the sticky napalm like
substance.

My season is sadly over and I have already set the anchor
weekends for 2018. I will do a season recap next Sunday night.

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Tailgate Connect

Dan From The Tailgate

DFT

I live for college football weekends. I love tailgating before and after games and absorbing the atmosphere and traditions of the host school. I am on a quest to see a game in every "real" stadium for D1A football in the country and attend as many games and Tailgates as I can. It is more fun to accomplish this with friends and family, thus the DFT Nation has grown far and wide over the last 15 years. I have also added lower Division schools as part of my annual mix. Each Season, I will travel the country and attend numerous games in college stadiums that I have not previously been to and take in the whole experience and blog about it.

I also like to hear about your game day experiences each week. But it is not just about attending different stadiums, our Tailgate has many repeat locations each year for traditional games that are just plain fun like Army- Navy. Last but not least, I am a college football polygamist. Born a Notre Dame fan, Big OU Sooners and Boise State fan. And of course I root on Army and my Alma Mater Frostburg State. Nonetheless, I love all college football and there is no such thing as a bad game.

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Tailgate Recipe of The Week

The most delicious Slow Cooker Beer Mac & Cheese that is totally homemade, uses your favorite beer and takes your mac and cheese to a whole…

Ingredients

Meat

1 lb Beef stew meat

Produce

1 14.5 oz can Tomatoes, fire-roasted

Canned Goods

1 cup Beef broth

Pasta & Grains

8 oz Pasta noodles

Baking & Spices

2 tbsp Flour

1 tbsp Worcheshire pub burger seasoning

Dairy

3 tbsp Butter

2 cups Cheese

2 cups Milk

Beer, Wine & Liquor

1 1/2 cup Stout beer

Death Valley, SC

With legendary BC Tailgaters Pops and Rick

Flip Cup at the Tailgate

Why can't we all just get along?

Favorite College Football Movie

Gracie Girl and Dan

My littlest Tailgater!

Vote for Your favorite Team Please

Cheerleaders

Boise Cheerleaders

Yahoo College Football Pick EM

Folks, follow the instructions below and cut and paste the link at the bottom. This is a fun weekly activity to measure your picks against others. No money, just for fun and a free DFT T shirt for the winner and DFT hat for 2nd and a pen for third at the end of the season! Let me know if you have any trouble signing up.

Hello Tailgater,

Welcome to Yahoo Sports College Football Pick'em.

You have created the Private Group called The Tailgaters and the Pick Set called Dan's Winners in that group. To allow other people to join this group send them the Group ID# (5374) and the Password (dan). Remember, it is the Group ID#, not the group name, that other people must use to join your group.

You are now ready to participate in College Football Pick'em. Your goal is to select the winner of each week's slate of games.